Child cancer survivor helps mom with melanoma diagnosis

MORAGA, Calif. -- A San Francisco area mom got breakfast in bed on Mother's Day and along with it, a valuable lesson in recovering from grueling cancer treatments. The teacher was her six-year-old daughter, who survived her own battle with kidney disease over the past year.

There is overwhelming joy in the Brown's home in Moraga, after all, they are together fighting cancer on two fronts. Finley was the first to get diagnosed with kidney cancer last summer and it wasn't an easy journey.

"My mom was scared if I was going to stay alive, or probably die," said Finley Brown.

"But you made it," said Finley's mom, A.J. Robinson Brown.

"Yes, I made it. Our family thought we were done with cancer for years, but it turns out we weren't. My mom got it too on her leg; skin cancer on her leg," said Finley Brown.

A.J. Robinson Brown was diagnosed with melanoma in April after they returned from a Make a Wish trip to Hawaii.

"I will take 10 of this over watching one of my children go through this again. It's so much easier to face it yourself," said A.J. Robinson Brown.

Now recuperating from surgery, this mom relied on her daughter's sage advice and encouragement as she started walking again. Finley is her doctor and her coach.

"I want you to try your best and if you fall, I'll help you get up and just keep on going," said Finley Brown.

"Just to have this angel by my side helped so much," said A.J. Robinson Brown.

And this mother, daughter team effort is paying off.

"It was the best Mother's Day ever. It pretty much was the best Mother's Day ever," said A.J. Robinson Brown.